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I had my eyeballs popping out when I saw all night buses from Coimbatore sold out for May 5, 2013. I reconfirmed by checking the operators' websites, and found it to be true. Some never heard-of operators had some seats vacant, but at exorbitant rates. I hoped someone operated a late evening trip from Coimbatore - but found none. Kallada's Hyderabad buses had some odd seat here-and-there, but did not book. Then I remembered about KaSRTC's services - the night ones were sold out, but the afternoon one had some tickets. I decided to take a service to Mysore instead, and got a seat in the evening "1614CBTMYS" schedule - which was actually their Mangalore service, operating as a "split service".

May 05, 2013:
I received a message from KSRTC at around 1500hrs giving details about my bus and the crew's phone number. I like this service a lot - it gives a lot of peace of mind. I vacated my room at around 1515hrs, and took a TNSTC bus towards Gandhipuram bu…

During my visit to Chennai in April, I had decided to make a trip to Coimbatore to capture a particular bus (heights of madness, you may say). I was planning to make a quick trip to Coimbatore for quite some time now. The polling day (assembly elections of Karnataka) was an ideal opportunity for me. As soon as I zeroed in on the date, I started hunting for tickets. The Conti "Asia Bus" was high up on my priority list - but I wanted to try that in the Coimbatore-Bangalore side - but they did not offer online booking for that service. Left with no choice, I decided to book my journey to Coimbatore in Conti Travels. I booked through a third party website and pocketed a small discount as well. Getting a return ticket turned out to be a big task - for some reason, all night services were sold out for that day! I was shocked - non even non-ac buses were available! Left with no options, I booked a ticket to Mysore by KaSRTC.

Sometime in the beginning of April 2013, I decided to head to Kannur to attend a wedding in May. May month would be punctuated with lots of journeys and hence taking a call to head to Kannur was a bit crucial. I was going there with my brother by road, and return tickets were being searched. For some reason, operators in Northern Kerala, aka Malabar, aren't very net savvy - they, either do not offer online bookings for their Kerala-Bangalore services, or put very few seats online. I checked on RedBus, and found that only Ashoka Volvo was listed on the route - Golden was shown "Sold Out". I had already traveled by Golden, so decided to check out Ashoka, who was offering a brand new Volvo 9100. I booked through Redbus, and chose one of the two seats available.

May 01, 2013:
Beginning of a happening month - it was a tiring day attending a wedding in Payyannur - the heat had sapped most of my energy. I had a short nap in the afternoon after returning from the wedding. I had …

It was a happening trip to Chennai - spent two rocking days doing busfanning. The first days roaming literally burnt me - my complexion changed dark. At the sun set on the second day, it was time for me to get packing. The ticket for my return journey was booked long back - much before I book the ticket for my onward journey. I am still not sure about the rationale for selecting VRL - but I chose it and booked the ticket through their website, getting a 5% discount on the rate. The bus was almost empty when I booked the ticket. I somehow like the VRL website for its simplicity, and limited use of graphics/images.

April 21, 2013:
A few hours to go for my bus, my phone beeped... "BINAI SANKAR Your Bus Number is KA25D1403 Departures from Koyambedu(OMNI BUS STAND)". I was happy - its a new bus for me! I had nothing much to do in my hotel room - so checked out, and headed to the restaurant downstairs for a good dinner. After dinner, I took an auto from my hotel to the Omni bus st…

I had been planning to visit Chennai solely with the intention of spotting some buses. The trip had been on the planning board right from mid 2012, when I had spent a couple of days in Chennai in connection with my first job after post-graduation. The pressures of the new job caught the best of me, and I had been mostly busy since then. Whenever I think of heading to Chennai, something else comes up, and I end up putting off the trip. There was one point when I almost booked a ticket to Chennai, but something else made me put it off. Then came a situation when I had booked a oneway ticket, but some health reasons made me put it off. Finally, the chance came up in mid-April 2013. I knew it was the wrong time to go to Chennai - the risk of getting fried in the heat there.

As soon I decided to go ahead with the trip, I booked my return ticket from Chennai - I had to return on a Sunday night, and hence had to make moves swiftly. I wanted to try the new Volvo sleeper of KPN, but by the ti…

Its been quite some time since I wrote something up here. It isn't that there has been nothing to write about, but I'd been quite lazy and busy (now that's an oxymoron) over the past month or so. Quite a lot of traveling, and been tied up with official work as well. I have a lot of reports to write here - they are on the way - may be another week more.

The last month was quite happening - a mindboggling trip to Chennai - two days with fellow bus-spotters, and then a trip to Ooty with my lovely students for an academic program. I remembered my last college trip during this one - in fact, I met my beloved teacher who had accompanied us on the last trip, during the trip with my students!! The last time I was with him as his student, this time I was there as a teacher! Teaching is one profession where the teacher and student reaches one level at one point of time (seniority is surely there - but a teacher is a teacher).